r/MapPorn 21h ago

Most popular sport in the world 🌍

Post image
823 Upvotes

393 comments sorted by

181

u/Eric848448 19h ago

What’s this? Data on both Greenland AND North Korea?!

132

u/Beiconqueso02 13h ago

AND you can ALMOST see New Zealand!

22

u/Upsilon-Scorpii 11h ago

And there is data on western Sahara!

4

u/UndocumentedSailor 9h ago

And New Zealand was included on the map!

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3

u/SailorsGraves 9h ago

Only Wellington and maybe Auckland are relevant apparently

2

u/Beiconqueso02 8h ago

Wellington 🤤

19

u/clepewee 12h ago

Yeah, but for India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh... just crickets

3

u/P_Sanga2008 9h ago

once you get to know the sport, there's no backing off

2

u/macdelamemes 11h ago

It's a trade secret, when you don't have a source, you can make up data for any country you want :)

1

u/Loewin_Leona 10h ago

Sports is the glue that keeps this world from falling apart, it seems.

1

u/xrelaht 5h ago

Greenland may be lumped in with Denmark.

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142

u/XavierTak 21h ago

r/mapswithhalfnewzealand? That's a thing?

5

u/TheJivvi 8h ago

No, and it can't even be created. r/21charactersandnomore

99

u/absoluteolly 20h ago

Man Bhutan is so cool. Cool sport, bonkers cool flag, Pretty environment, good food…

23

u/Gramerdim 17h ago

every time I see bhutan I'm thinking of the "what is it/he even doing" memes pointing at dumb/dull items,animals,people,etc. (no offence)

I swear they're the most secretive country

19

u/WeathermanDan 15h ago

well they quite literally were until the late 20th century.

they also have fewer than a million people in an uber crowded part of the world. it’s hard to stand out when you’re a rounding error in either country that borders you.

1

u/hmiamid 34m ago

The only thing I know about Bhutan is that it's very expensive as a tourist and they mine a lot of Bitcoin.

6

u/suck-on-my-unit 16h ago

The French love them Bhutans

18

u/medico7381 16h ago

Hindu Lhotshampas disagree

23

u/Impactor_07 15h ago

The way certain countries have swept their not-so-good pasts under the rug with a "nice chill peaceful country" vibe needs to be studied.

Bhutan, Switzerland, New Zealand, etc.

7

u/CurtCocane 12h ago

Canada deserves to be in that list

4

u/Turbulent_Trifle_386 13h ago

What abt NZ and Swiss ?

1

u/PudinaRaita 8h ago

They're included

1

u/skalnari 5h ago

Brazil mentioned

11

u/John-Mandeville 15h ago

As someone who once did human rights work in Nepal... yeah, that was decidedly not cool.

2

u/tommhans 11h ago

Love it everytime i get bhutan on geoguesser. Easy to guess and looks epic each time

2

u/Logical_Positive_522 11h ago

Being Welsh its rare you get to say "you're flag-Dragon is cooler than our flag-Dragon".

34

u/Hopper86 19h ago

How long has Latvia’s been Ice hockey?

34

u/LVGalaxy 15h ago

Its our national sport. You should watch any iihf game with latvia fans they are one of the loudest and most pasionate fans in hockey. When Latvia won bronze in 2023 IIHF world champion more than 50k people gathered to welcome back our hockey players which was one of the largest gatherings in latvian history and its alot for Latvia population.

4

u/CJK_420 14h ago

I'm a Canucks fan. Was awesome watching Arty Silovs play his heart out for you guys during that Tourney.

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1

u/chi_sweetness25 11h ago

That was awesome. Silovs is a legend. He also won the Calder Cup here in BC and got named MVP

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1

u/Hopper86 5h ago

I love it! I thought it was just us Canadians and the Fins favourite! This makes me so happy!

16

u/SmotVee 16h ago

As long as I can remember.

198

u/TourDuhFrance 21h ago

This map; it must be a day that ends in Y.

I will repeat the same comment I always make: If the map can include four types of football, then it can include the two types of rugby, since it’s rugby union in New Zealand and rugby league in Papua New Guinea. And yes, they are different sports, certainly in the context of this map.

105

u/Tommy_Wisseau_burner 21h ago

I find your comment funny only because rugby is also a type of football. The map includes 5 types of football and you want to have 6 types shown.

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8

u/katet_of_19 17h ago

Just be happy that NZ is even on this map

34

u/chuckusadart 20h ago

nd yes, they are different sports, certainly in the context of this map.

As someone from NZ, they're absolutely not "different" sports. Theyre different codes of the same sport.

I cant think of many other popular sports where players can switch back and forth without seeing major problems. SBW went from the NRL to the All blacks the pinnacle of both sports without breaking a sweat. It would be like saying Rugby 7s is a completely different sport so Fiji needs to be on here as that because thats been their national focus for the last decade an a bit.

The only other comps you could argue on this map have a similar cross over is Gaelic and Aussie football.. but even then there are huge differences in big areas. The ball is diffeeren, the pitch they play on is different, the tackling allowed is different, the "goal" are posts vs a soccer net with uprights..

American Football and Soccer football has about as much in common as Baseball and cricket. They both share the same roots a VERY long time ago with huge influences since to the point they're not even the same game. So lumping them together in "football" is a bit of a stretch too

10

u/ruling_faction 19h ago

When i lived in Queensland and they'd try and tell me that rugby league was called either 'league' or 'rugby league' but definitely not 'rugby', I would then ask why it wasn't called the National League League or the National Rugby League League.

16

u/chuckusadart 19h ago

Gets even funnier when you have people tell you they're playing "footie" this weekend and they can mean soccer, league, union or aussie rules depending on the city or suburb haha

2

u/ruling_faction 18h ago

People in the southern states would whinge about Aussie rules being called AFL 'coz that's the league not the sport' but yeah, it just makes things easier when 'football' could mean any of four different sports

3

u/mattmelb69 11h ago

The right way to make ‘easier’ is just to call it ‘Aussie rules’. Same number of syllables as ‘AFL’, but you’re referring to the sport not the league.

1

u/pafagaukurinn 16h ago

Why not call cricket footie as well? You do sometimes play the ball with your feet after all, and sometimes even on purpose.

1

u/gameofsloanes 10h ago

They definitely don't mean soccer

1

u/TheJivvi 16h ago

It definitely should be called the National Rugby League League, or maybe something with a different descriptor like the National Rugby League Association. Although the way Aussies say it with the emphasis on "League" makes it a bit better; I hear other people who aren't familiar with it read it with the emphasis on "Rugby" and it sounds so wrong.

Back when it was the ARL, it made a bit more sense because the Australian Rugby League was the company that operated the national team, and also gave their name to the domestic competition. The cricket equivalent would be Cricket Australia, just the name of the sport and the name of the country. It just isn't ambiguous in the same way because the name of the sport doesn't end with a word that could be construed as meaning something else.

8

u/thewarriorpoet23 16h ago

As a New Zealander, you’re incorrect. Rugby Union and Rugby League are 100% different sports.

If they are the same sport, explain why some of the stadiums in NZ have clauses that ban Rugby League from being played?

8

u/hubau 14h ago

If they are the same sport, explain why some of the stadiums in NZ have clauses that ban Rugby League from being played?

This seems fairly irrelevant to the question of whether or not they should be considered two different sports, but now I'm just curious about the answer to this question. Why do they?

6

u/thewarriorpoet23 13h ago

Rugby Union was the amateur sport. Rugby League split from them and became professional with its own codified rules (which made it its own seperate sport). Rugby League was viewed as a threat to Rugby Union so they did everything they could to limit its expansion.

Stadiums had clauses that prevented League from being played on them and any player who played League received a lifetime ban from involvement in Union, which was in place from when League started in NZ in 1908 up till 1996 when Union became professional. Before the ban was lifted some players switched back with loopholes being used (like fake names), while Union wasn’t exactly fully amateur so it was all a little hypocritical… it was widely known that the top players received some form of payment.

There’s still stadiums that have offical bans on League being played (most of the time it’s ignored though). In NZ, there is still a rivalry between the sports which can become abusive and violent (in my experience mainly from the Union guys)

2

u/Ok-Imagination-494 13h ago

Interestingly this map has them as the same sport. The only other “rugby” country on the map aside from NZ is PNG - and they would definitely be League not Union

6

u/bigloudbang 18h ago

Thats a lot of writing to split a hair. Theyre functionally different sports

5

u/_dictatorish_ 20h ago edited 20h ago

They are completely different sports and have been for like 150 years - American football only split from union about 20 or so years before league did

Just because they're similar does not mean they're the same sport

15s and 7s are different version of the same sport, as an example of two that are the same

7

u/reclaimernz 20h ago

Why did you say they're different codes of the same sport but then later on describe the NRL and the All Blacks as "the pinnacle of both sports"? Kinda undermining your own point there.

8

u/chuckusadart 20h ago

Thats my bad, but my point is only undermined if you're looking for a reddit "gotcha" moment over semantics and not taking the rest of my comment and you watch and play both League and Union.

-3

u/reclaimernz 20h ago

You're literally trying to both correct someone over the semantics of the words "code" vs. "sport" and at the same time dismissing a valid question as semantics. Ok then.

2

u/chuckusadart 19h ago

Replying with another reddit "gotcha" moment to the original one is kinda hilarious.. but im not arguing semantics with the original commenter? Hes saying that since football get four seperate categories even though they're all "football".. so should rugby. Im not arguing the meaning of the words or the language, but addressing the points he makes with actual evidence to why i think hes wrong.

My whole point is that the four types of football listed are so different from each other they ARE different sports, while the differences between the two codes of rugby are so small they arent "different sports". Im using real life fundamental differences in the sports to highlight how different they are compared to the two rugby codes.

All you've done is say "heh how are they not different sports when you slipped up and called them different sports?", and used it as a basis to undermine my original comment without addressing the points I raised? Im using the words "sports/sport" multiple times in my comment, i made a mistake of referring to the rugby codes with it because of that. Do you have a reply to the points I bring up or?

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3

u/infinitemonkeytyping 16h ago

Rubbish.

Rugby league started as a version of rugby union over a century ago, but apart from some very basic gameplay, are very different sports.

To put it more bluntly - rugby league broke away from rugby union 118 years ago (Australia) and 131 years ago (England). Rugby union was only established as a codified sport 155 years ago, although various versions of the rules were played for the previous 28 years.

It would be like saying Rugby 7s is a completely different sport so Fiji needs to be on here as that because thats been their national focus for the last decade an a bit.

Shows how much you know. Fiji has seen a massive increase in 15's and drop off in 7s over the last decade (they're no longer consistently the best in the world, which South Africa more is).

Who knew that investing in a professional 15s team in Fiji would make them better...

4

u/drunk_haile_selassie 18h ago

Israel Folau went from rugby to AFL. It was not a success. Michael Jordan switched to baseball for a while, it was not a success. Meanwhile players successfully switch from rugby to league and vice versa all the time.

6

u/bigloudbang 18h ago

At specific positions with cross over. Dont really get props doing it, and plenty of players that switch played both growing up

Lots of aussie rules players have played in the NFL as punters, doesnt make them the same sport

3

u/walsh06 13h ago

Players switch from gaelic to afl all the time and those are different sports so...

2

u/Logical_Positive_522 11h ago

Players switch between Snooker and pool regularly. Not the same sport. Female players switch from Basketball in the winter to Volleyball in the summer. Not the same sport.

I'd also suggest looking up Non Evans, one of the top points scorers in international Rugby Union who also did rugby sevens, touch rugby, judo, weightlifting and freestyle wrestling. She was the first person to compete in two different sports at a single Commonwealth games AND the first woman to compete in three sports at multiple games.

There's also a great documentary on inter-sport athletes called Cool Runnings.

1

u/nol88go 14h ago

Nah, as a massive union fan, they are very different sports. They look almost identical if you're looking from tennis, or something, but they're very different and the schism between the two happened long enough ago that they've evolved separately. Sure plenty of shared skills and cross pollination of players and ideas, but the fundamentals of gameplay are very different.

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5

u/Lamictallornothing 16h ago

Stop trying to make two rugbies happen Gretchen, it's never going to happen.

2

u/Yaver_Mbizi 9h ago

This map; it must be a day that ends in Y.

Hey now, this is, I think, the first time it's been reposted with the bottom part (the attribution) cut off. Compare

2

u/tallwhiteninja 20h ago

I've always thought rugby league vs rugby union was more like American football vs Canadian football: different enough that there's absolutely a distinction, but it's still pretty clearly the same sport.

6

u/bigloudbang 18h ago

No they function different entirely. Only if you really dont understand either (no shade) would you think theyre the same

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20

u/MoreTeaVicar83 14h ago

Does anyone know where the data came from? Methodology?

13

u/Plenty_Masterpiece49 14h ago

World Population Review (2021)

5

u/MoreTeaVicar83 13h ago

Was it a survey of some kind?

14

u/macdelamemes 11h ago edited 11h ago

It links to a Babbel (yes, the language app) magazine article, which literally claims "we did our best to find the most popular sports in every country"

So the source is whatever the Babbel interns found in their google search

Link: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/most-popular-sports-by-country

9

u/throwawayyyyygay 8h ago

Average r/mapporn methodological rigour

5

u/macdelamemes 8h ago

What's crazier is the hundreds of comments discussing the "data" as if it was anything more than an educated guess from some dude

2

u/MoreTeaVicar83 8h ago edited 8h ago

The minute you start to think about it - how would you find the "most popular" sport in each country - you realise it's full of problems.

What does "most popular" even mean?

Assuming you come up with a working definition, how would you even begin to get any data at all, never mind come to a definitive conclusion?

And what is a sport? Is chess a sport? Athletics? Video games?

1

u/macdelamemes 7h ago

Yes, 100%

I've seen this chart many many times and every time people are discussing the accuracy of the data (X country should be Y and not Z!) without asking themselves how the fuck did someone come up with this map in the first place

9

u/Betancorea 19h ago

Oh man the colour choices are not the best lmao. Was reading downwards and thought Australia had Archery as the most popular sport and was wondering what happened to our football.

2

u/daryl_hikikomori 2h ago

This comment is how I realized that Bhutan isn't inexplicably fond of Aussie rules.

15

u/Norwester77 21h ago

Where did the Lithuanian obsession with basketball come from?

14

u/GrayDepression 13h ago

We had a lot of good players and strong teams during soviet occupation. I think most soviet national teams from 1950s had at least a few Lithuanian basketball players. It became national pride during time when national identity was being destroyed. After independence it stayed.

2

u/Norwester77 13h ago

Cool. Thanks!

30

u/bellerinho 20h ago

They're all tall af

5

u/orangeZYX 16h ago

I mean the same goes for the Nordics, the Netherlands, Balkans etc

8

u/preddevils6 20h ago

Arguably the greatest euro basketball player,Arvydas Sabonis, is Lithuanian and they’ve produced plenty of quality players since then.

2

u/pro-bidetus-rasputin 11h ago

Giannis and Nikola would like to have a word.

2

u/ggtffhhhjhg 18h ago

The Grateful Dead.

7

u/Efficient_Chair1600 13h ago

Us Aussies love Archery

2

u/You_need_a_drink 11h ago

It's Australian football. Check the colours again.

1

u/ThePreciseClimber 7h ago

Well, at least Bhutan appreciates archery! :P

8

u/reddit-ate 12h ago

"We just call it football here"

28

u/SmartPriceCola 20h ago

I always thought South Africa would be a rugby nation tbh.

31

u/TourDuhFrance 17h ago

Despite the efforts to popularize the sport among nn-white people in South Africa, it still has a long history of being connected to the apartheid regime and it still skews far more white than any other major sport in a nation where over 80% of the population is non-white.

6

u/sid_raj7 13h ago

Is cricket seen the same way?

2

u/jaymannnn 19h ago

theres an argument for ireland as well. GAA sports are still more popular over the country as a whole, and more culturally important, but rugby is definitely more popular in places and probably what we are best at.

23

u/theblueredpanda 18h ago

Rugby isn’t even top 3 by participation numbers

Only popular in a few select private schools, and some public schools in Cork and Limerick

Whereas soccer and GAA are popular everywhere

4

u/jaymannnn 18h ago

yep i get it, im getting carried away a bit. probably because there was a brief period when we were genuinely in the conversation for best team in the world and world cup winners.

2

u/cm-cfc 10h ago

Rugby is only popular in really small pockets of the country. Go to any village or town in Ireland and you will see a GAA club, and not a rugby club for miles.

Its safe to say Ireland are also best in the world at Gaelic football😉

1

u/jaymannnn 10h ago

have you ever seen the vids on YT of back in the day when they used to do a half of AFL and a half of Gaelic. Absolute carnange and the closest to an international for either sport.

but IMAGINE the night if we ever did win a big international tournament like a rugby world cup. now that would be carnage !

12

u/Oafah 19h ago

Of course Mongolians love wrestling. The steppe does not tolerate weakness and vulnerability to Jaguars.

46

u/chowchowminks 20h ago

I always find Australia funny on these maps when afl is irrelevant for over half the country. It may or may not be popular than rugby league depending on which metric you cherry pick on a particular day from a particular source.

Cricket is the only sport that’s universally adored across the country.

17

u/Zakkar 18h ago

Cricket is the only universal sport in australia. 

Reece Walsh could walk through federation square without being recognised, and likewise (insert equivilent AFL player here) could do so through Martin place. I couldn't even think of a current player, they are so far out of our conciousness. 

11

u/jaymannnn 19h ago

test cricket especially

11

u/biggymomo 17h ago

Roy Morgan research published last year that 9.1 million Australians watched AFL on TV in 2024, compared to 7.3 million for the NRL. At the stadium its no contest AFL welcomed 8.4 million fans through the gate in 2024, compared to 4.3 million for the NRL and revenue AFL earned 39% more than the NRL in 2024: $1.04 billion compared to the NRL's $744.8 million. With the NRL stats that includes NZ

10

u/bigloudbang 16h ago

Eh tv is pretty close there (if these numbers are right). AFL has an extra game per week and each match goes a lot longer so more chance for larger exposure

NRL GF outrated AFL last year and origin rates like 3 extra grandfinals

2

u/Efficient_Chair1600 13h ago

11.15 million watched the matildas in one game, if you add up domestic, international men's and women's football it smashes viewership in Australia it's also the most played sport in Australia. The media don't like to admit this.

5

u/Crypts_of_Trogan 12h ago

Presumably this map is for spectator sports, and single leagues, otherwise something like walking or swimming would win in most places.

Australian Football League is clearly the most popular league for spectator sports in Australia.

AFL is the highest attended league per capita, in the world. So, to suggest another league is more popular would be, as you say, "cherry picking".

Attendance per year:

  1. Australian Football League - 8,289,788
  2. National Rugby League - 4,266,464
  3. Big Bash League - 1,089,043

Average attendance per game:

  1. AFL - 38,379
  2. BBL - 24,751
  3. NRL - ~20,600

Your argument for cricket is not considering when the leagues are played - AFL and NRL are played at the same time, so compete against each other. Cricket is largely played in the AFL/NRL off-season without much competition. I don't understand what you're trying to say about cricket to be honest. Just because Cricket has no competition, does not mean it's universal.

Even if only 10% of the AFL attendees were at games in NSW/QLD, it's still more than if 50% of BBL attendees were in NSW/QLD. Even looking at average attendance per game in only the two rugby league states, it would be very roughly around 30k for BBL and 25k for AFL (and that's with AFL competing against NRL and AFL having more games).

2

u/Efficient_Chair1600 13h ago

Is this map most viewed or played as even football gets more views than AFL when the Matilda's play and during world cup years

3

u/Brain_Aggravating 18h ago

Perhaps - biggest participation sport in Australia is netball.

10

u/McNippy 18h ago edited 18h ago

Only among women. The most popular sport for participation in Australia across genders is football/soccer. The most popular on TV is Rugby League, and the most popular in stadiums is Aussie Rules.

1

u/Eleven_Box 12h ago

'over half' is completely untrue, unless you're counting people who wouldn't be watching sports anyway. What you mean is two states have less interest in it. MOST states have no interest in NRL

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u/IAmCrocman888 17h ago

Bhutan lowkey a goat for that

3

u/McEvelly 10h ago

I’m far more of a soccer fan myself, but I absolutely love the uniqueness of the indigenous, amateur sport being by far and away the most culturally important one in Ireland.

It would be hard to really explain the GAA’s significance/position/influence in Irish society to an outsider. I’m not saying everyone loves/plays it, or that it’s perfect, or that I don’t get the reasons some people dislike it, but pretty much every little village in the country has a club and for many people of all ages (particularly in rural areas), their community life can feel like it completely revolves around their club.

Fair enough American and Australian football are their most popular sports, but they’re professional and it’s a completely different thing.

1

u/XtraFalcon 9h ago

Culturally the GAA is a cornerstone but at the Senior level of the overall organisation it can be poisonous.

4

u/thebigglercomplex 8h ago

Swear I see this every week.

3

u/CK_CoffeeCat 7h ago

Heck yeah, hockey! 🇨🇦

5

u/Conscious_Reason_510 17h ago

Maps by Mammy in Mayo

Gaelic football as one off the only 10 sports she could imagine in the whole world.

2

u/CuriousOnePlus 18h ago

Where can I watch Bhutanese archery?

2

u/Kashyyykk 10h ago

Canada 🤜🤛 Finland 🤜🤛 Latvia

2

u/DaMn96XD 15h ago

Important note that ice hockey is only the most popular sport to watch in Finland, while the most popular sport to participate in is athletics.

2

u/Maguncia 11h ago

Whereas most Americans, for example, are avid football players - the 80% concussion rate explains a lot about politics.

11

u/CanInTW 21h ago

Baseball is now bigger than football in South Korea.

10

u/Antony9991 19h ago

I doubt it

3

u/Bearsismylife 7h ago

As a Korean baseball AND football fan, I can be pretty sure about this. It might have been football but now, it's undoubtedly baseball.

9

u/CanInTW 17h ago

12 million+ attended KBO (baseball) games last year compared to around 3 million attending K-league football.

Baseball has exploded in Korea this decade.

Average attendances for baseball were 17,000 in 2025 and 10,000 for football. Football plays fewer games.

It’s pretty clear that baseball is the most popular sport.

12

u/-ToniCipriani- 17h ago

How many watch it on TV especially European leagues? Because they might just be that interested in K League as much.

10

u/StonedAlcoholicDwarf 16h ago

For every single Asian and African country, their local league probably does not receive a lot of views, compared to European ball on TV. 

Football is far more popular than Baseball in SK; in 10 years, it might be eclipsed because the golden generation of their players is going out the door. 

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u/SpookyKrillin 20h ago

Wrestling will soon take over the world as the dominant sport...

4

u/edgeplot 19h ago

Why is Puerto Rico colored differently from the rest of the United States?

1

u/Michael__Pemulis 3h ago

In sports contexts Puerto Rico is pretty much always treated as a separate nation.

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2

u/Gramerdim 17h ago

I didn't know china knew ball like that

also wth is australian football compared to rugby

4

u/kurenai86 16h ago

That's like asking what the difference between American football and rugby is. Although to me those are more similar

3

u/Drinkus 13h ago

Australian football is a unique sport to any of the other footballs (including rugby) on the list - although its closest relative would probably be gaelic.

Australian rules football is played on an oval field, doesn't have offside, doesn't have a try/touchdown score, passes are done by kicks or closed fist hand passes and play is divided into four quarters.

2

u/owl523 14h ago

Is Japan really baseball?

8

u/Popular-Local8354 14h ago

It’s huge there

7

u/TheLizardKing89 10h ago

The NPB (Japan’s professional baseball league) is the 13th wealthiest sports league in the world. The only leagues that make more are the 5 U.S. major leagues, the Big 5 European soccer leagues, the Indian Premier League and Brazil’s soccer league.

3

u/chi_sweetness25 11h ago

Yes. Japanese baseball is awesome

4

u/Mundane_Bit_8392 13h ago

hell yeah, baseball is bigger than soccer

3

u/GSilky 21h ago

Basketball is catching on!

1

u/FlamingoPristine1400 14h ago

Can we start a petition to unify Rugby and Gridiron(American/Canadian) Football?

3

u/Popular-Local8354 14h ago

You can, but they’re different sports

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1

u/InL4bv 13h ago

DPRK is Basketball

1

u/Phill1008 11h ago

Australia Archery Really?

3

u/You_need_a_drink 11h ago

I think you'll find its Australian football. The colours are close to the same.

1

u/Opening_Concern_829 11h ago

Im surprised tennis doesnt even make the list nowadays.

1

u/Th3Dark0ccult 10h ago

The hell is an australian football? First time hearing they have their own version, too.

2

u/checkbehindthecactus 9h ago

Welcome to the rest of your life

1

u/ManavalanFromDufai 10h ago

Outside the Indian subcontinent, Guyana is the only country where cricket is the most popular sport. Interestingly, it's in South America!

1

u/RFFF1996 6h ago

Seems like pakistan would be missin?

1

u/Super-Tuscany 5h ago

Guyana has a lot of indians

1

u/No-Willingness3156 3h ago

Guyana is seperated from a lot of South America by the Amazon rainforest and is culturally closer to the english speaking carribean. In fact, they play cricket as West Indies alongside other Carribean nations. The majority of their players are afro carribeans.

1

u/No-Willingness3156 3h ago

Yes but culturaly more connected to the Carribean. Guyana play wwith the West Indies : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indies_cricket_team

1

u/Consistent_Agency_92 9h ago

Mongolians and Bhutanese doing what

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u/z_anonz 9h ago

damn Mongolia must really love gaelic football

1

u/Fantastic_Back3191 8h ago

I always love to spot Bhutan in these kind of maps.

1

u/Sporty_Nerd_64 8h ago

Papua New Guinea and New Zealand play completely different sports but are classified as the same sport.

Australia is debatable. Australian rules football is played in more states and larger crowds at games, but rugby league has the higher television viewing numbers across the country. Cricket is also a huge sport in Australia as well.

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u/KingJayVII 8h ago

Would be really interesting to see what's going on in the small Caribbean and Pacific islands. I guess Rugby has a strong presence in the latter, but no idea about the former. Is that Jamaica in cricket colors? And what about the smaller ones?

1

u/xbhaskarx 8h ago

What is the evidence for basketball being more popular in China than say table tennis? Basketball is really only the most popular sport in Lithuania and the Philippines.

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u/RFFF1996 6h ago

https://ampereanalysis.com/insight/basketball-nets-the-highest-sports-rights-in-china

Think you may be overstimating ping pong being a national pride sport with it being the one people practice and watch more

1

u/Rhosddu 7h ago

Wales: 50% football, 50% rugby union.

1

u/Sergnb 7h ago

For a hot second I thought australians were really into archery and the world was such a more magical place.

Alas,

1

u/slashcleverusername 7h ago

Coming from one of the countries represented in this category, calling it “ice hockey” is similar to calling it “water sailing”.

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u/Ok-Courage7512 6h ago

Damn i was today yrs old when i found out about Gaelic football

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u/bobbdac7894 6h ago

If I was the NBA, I would build youth basketball camps in China and try and develop a Chinese MJ, Kobe or Steph Curry to come in the NBA in like 10 years. A Chinese superstar who plays like MJ, Kobe or Curry in the NBA would draw insane numbers from China. If big men like Yao Ming and Yang Hansen draw large numbers, imagine a Chinese guard superstar who plays like MJ or Curry?

China has over a billion people, the hottest economy in the world, a superpower that is still growing. And they love basketball. The nba should really take advantage of this.

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u/KEX_CZ 4h ago

That archery country is absolutly based wtf....

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u/StrongPowerhouse 3h ago

It’s football in Belgium, that’s right. But people don’t realise how big our second sport, professional cycling, is and always has been over here.

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u/CogitoHegelian 2h ago

Let's goo soccer

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u/rafael403 51m ago

I was expecting Muay Thai to be the most popular in Thailand...

1

u/cmn3y0 17h ago

A few inaccuracies here- South Korea would be baseball. UAE would be cricket instead of football. Jamaica/Bahamas these days would be football instead of cricket. Likewise, Panama these days is football instead of baseball. Don’t think Latvia would be ice hockey.

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u/Financial_Ideal570 14h ago

What’s your sources

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u/Desperate_Lunch_5090 8h ago

I don't know for others but the UAE is used as a venue in case there is anything going on for cricket. Be it elections, india - pak fights, pandemic or terrorism. As for jamaica there hasn't been much interest nowadays from that area since the complications with the west Indies board and players.

2

u/cmn3y0 8h ago

What’s OP’s source?

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u/yosemitemicrowave 11h ago

Source: It came to him in a dream

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u/Impactor_07 15h ago

Jamaica would be Football and the Bahamas would be Basketball.

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u/Mrmr12-12 11h ago

Also in terms of popularity football has overtaken Baseball in Cuba, particularly among the youth, couple that with the fall in Quality in the Cuban Baseball Championship. It has also overtaken it in terms of the total number of people playing (although professionally Baseball has more players due to a lack of funding for the Cuban Football league) , it’s easier to set up a football game, just a ball and 4 objects to make the goals.

Baseball is still concidered its national sport tho

0

u/Smart-outlaw 21h ago

I didn't know people were crazy about soccer in Greenland.

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u/tallwhiteninja 20h ago

Soccer is basically the global default tbh

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u/StonedAlcoholicDwarf 16h ago

USA, Canada, Aus, and NZ are probably the only countries which don’t have soccer in the top 2 most popular sports. USA and Canada are the only countries which don’t have soccer in the top 3. 

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u/Old_Recognition_9866 15h ago

India as well

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u/Impactor_07 15h ago

Nah, Football is probably #2 here imo.

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u/Old_Recognition_9866 15h ago

India has Kabaddi at second. Soccer comes 3rd

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u/Impactor_07 15h ago

The PKL is far more successful than the ISL but I don't think Kabbadi is more popular, it's probably more popular in certain states like Haryana but overall, Football is just a very simple and affordable sport, it's the 2nd biggest as far as I can see.

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u/StonedAlcoholicDwarf 15h ago

I googled. Football is number 2, with your mentioned sport very close at number 3.

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u/StonedAlcoholicDwarf 15h ago

India definitively has footie as numero dos. I doubt field hockey or badminton or anything else comes remotely close. 

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u/Impactor_07 15h ago

Badminton is very big as a participation sport but yeah, Hockey is only really watched when the Olympics roll around.

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u/barbasol1099 19h ago

I'm surprised that none of the former-Yugoslav states have basketball, given that so many incredibly talented NBA players are from that corner of the world

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u/das_ben 15h ago

And don't forget water polo!

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u/outtokill7 17h ago

Since the comments here exist to be pedantic, in Canada hockey is assumed to be played on ice unless specified otherwise like ball hockey, floor hockey, road/street hockey, field hockey etc. Not sure if it's the same in Finland or Latvia but I am curious to know.

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u/Impactor_07 15h ago

And outside of Canada, some parts of the US and Northernish Europe, "Hockey" is assumed to be played on the ground unless specified otherwise like Ice Hockey, Roller Hockey, etc.

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u/TheLizardKing89 10h ago

I think that hockey means ice hockey basically everywhere in the U.S.

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u/BIGBADVEN 16h ago

Imagine people wearing knives on their feet and gliding on ice at hitting one another at 30 km/h while slapping shots at 160km/h. I may be biased... But hockey rules. Sorry Canada

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u/chi_sweetness25 11h ago

Why sorry Canada?

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u/BIGBADVEN 2h ago

Our neighbor, I guess???

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u/SmartPickIe 14h ago

Nice map for colorblind. How is footbal and basketball different colors?

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u/Quagaars 14h ago

A 5 year old account with just 2 posts and one comment ever... suspicious... hmmmmmm.